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George R. R. Martin Hits the Road

On Tuesday, the day of its release, “A Dance with Dragons,” the latest volume in George R. R. Martin’s epic fantasy saga, “A Song of Ice and Fire,” sold nearly three hundred thousand copies in print, digital, and audio editions—the highest first-day sales of any book published this year. (Sales were, no doubt, boosted by the success of HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” which is based on the book series, and which just received an Emmy nomination.) Martin will be in New York tonight, signing copies at the Barnes & Noble in Union Square, and will be making stops in Indianapolis, San Diego, Los Angeles, and other cities in the coming days. If you’re planning to attend any of those events, Martin’s publisher, Bantam, would like you to know a few ground rules in advance: Martin will not pose for fan photographs; he will not give personalized inscriptions; and, just in case you were thinking of having your broadsword or scepter autographed, he will only sign items for sale in the store. These limitations may cause some chagrin to Martin’s fans. In a profile of Martin published earlier this year, Laura Miller described an appearance he made at Vroman’s Bookstore, in Pasadena, in January:

Hundreds of fans waited in a line that coiled around the store. They presented Martin with volumes from “A Song of Ice and Fire” and works from his early years as a science-fiction writer, as well as with calendars, posters, e-readers, yellowing pulp magazines, and replica swords. Three young women wore handmade T-shirts emblazoned with the coats of arms of their favorite clans from the series. Martin was unflaggingly attentive to his supplicants, including the couple who asked him to pose for a photograph with their infant daughter, who was named Daenerys, for one of his heroines.

If nothing else, though, the release of “A Dance with Dragons” will put an end, at least temporarily, to complaints from some Martin fans who felt that the author had been taking too long to produce the final volumes of his series. This, as Miller notes, is the double-edged sword of developing such a close relationship with one’s readers:

Fans desperate to find out what happened to Martin characters like Tyrion Lannister … found it irksome to check Martin’s Web site for updates about the series’ fifth book, “A Dance with Dragons,” and find instead postings about sports or politics. They began to complain in the comments section of Martin’s blog and on Westeros.org…

The discontent soon spilled over into other platforms—from science-fiction and fantasy forums to discussion boards on Amazon.com. One poster wrote, “George R. R. Martin, you suck…. Pull your fucking typewriter out of your ass and start fucking typing.” Another joked that Martin had written a book called “How to Cash in Big Time After You Write Half a Series.” Such invective has flourished even after Martin, in early March, announced that “A Dance with Dragons” will finally be published on July 12th. One skeptic, posting on Amazon.com, said of the release date, “Don’t hold your breath on this one unless you like passing out.”

It seems a safe bet that some of the fans going to see Martin at events will be asking him how long they’ll have to wait for the next book.

Illustration by David Hughes.

Jon Michaud is a novelist and the head librarian at The Center for Fiction.